Jun 04, 2026 •
The subject property, a former lagoon site once owned by Sofina Foods, is now owned by Bartels Environment Services Inc. and is located just east of the village of Dublin. jpg, MA, apsmc
The Ontario Land Tribunal has recently sided with the Municipality of West Perth in a conflict regarding an unused lagoon just east of Dublin.
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A proposed change to the zoning bylaw that aimed to breathe new life into the abandoned lagoon stirred up quite a bit of anger among locals about four years ago, eventually leading to a tribunal hearing.
“The municipality, through their legal counsel, was successful on all counts in the hearing, so that’s a very good outcome for us and a lot of the citizens for Dublin as well,” said Dan Hobson, West Perth’s chief administrator during council’s June 1 meeting.
The tribunal’s decision from F. Lavoie was issued on May 26.
The amendment under discussion sought to alter the current agricultural zoning to agricultural commercial/industrial “special” status. This change would have allowed Ancaster-based Bartels Environmental Services Inc. to store biosolids in an established lagoon situated along Highway 8 just east of Dublin that was previously used by Sofina Foods before they relocated to Mitchell nearly ten years ago.
The main concerns raised formally by three local residents-Colleen Eickmeier, Bruce Bettles and Mark Cox-during an October 2022 meeting were unpleasant odors, increased traffic levels, potential contamination of their own wells and drops in property values for homes located just over 400 meters away. The municipality also received around a dozen written objections.
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Ashley and Jeffrey Kroonen, who live right next door to Bartels’ property on the west side, represented themselves at the tribunal against the proposal as well.
The subject property spans 11.2 hectares (27 acres) and was once a lagoon treating wastewater produced by Sofina’s turkey-slaughtering facility that used to be at 147 John St. in Dublin. In September 2017, Sofina closed down its smaller facility in Dublin after commissioning a new plant in Mitchell. They kept monitoring the treatment lagoons throughout all of 2018.
The land faces Highway 8 and includes a woodlot covering about 1.65 hectares.
Bartels Environmental Services acquired this site back in January 2020 with plans to convert it into a waste storage lagoon for treated digestate from non-agricultural sources-this includes materials like leaf waste or food-processing leftovers-which would then be applied to farmland as nutrient-rich organic soil instead of relying on chemical fertilizers.
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The lagoon site consists of three cells intended for storing treated digestate and liquid wastes from various communities nearby which would have been collected via hauler trucks up to six days weekly for more than twelve hours each day.
Bartels submitted requests for both a zoning bylaw amendment and permissions under the Planning Act alongside an application related to legal non-conforming use; however West Perth denied both applications leading Bartels to file an appeal.
In its ruling regarding this case, it found that the zoning bylaw amendment aligns with provincial policy statements since it does not qualify as either agriculture-related uses or non-agricultural users while determining that the legal non-conforming use had ceased made the appeal irrelevant according to what was presented at tribunal.
“It was pretty interesting reading,” said West Perth Mayor Walter Mc Kenzie while referring specifically towards tribunal’s detailed nineteen-page decision.
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